“I bet you got your hands full, huh, buddy?” an older white man commented.

He showed me his ring and said, “I miss those days.”

He was referring to me being young, handsome, wealthy, and single.

I laughed and said, “Actually, the way I’m feeling right now, maybe it’s better to have a woman guaranteed every once in awhile.”

The guy looked at me and frowned. He said, “Guaranteed? Who in the hell told you that? At least you can shoot at different options when you’re still out there. But when you got that committed ball and chain on ya’ ankle, you’re just sitting at the table waiting and hoping that there’s any ripe food to eat that night. You know what I mean? It’s the worst fucking feeling in the world. And you ask yourself, ‘Who signed me up for this shit?’ ”

I laughed a little harder. This guy was a classic hard-liner. It was good to hear the honest-to-God truth from a committed man. I got tired of hearing that Hallmark shit from married guys. Everyone knew Hallmark cards were for women. Guys needed to tell the damn truth. Problem was, the truth wouldn’t get you any play, so you couldn’t tell it.

I marched out of that bathroom set on being reckless. Most women were not in the mood when they were pissed off, but as a man, I was ready to go into full dog mode. All I thought about was not being lonely at the end of the night. But I still had my limitations. I wouldn’t choose to be with just any woman.

I looked for Victoria and her friend to introduce them to a few folks and find out as quickly as I could where her head was for the rest of the evening, but Rachel beat her to me.

“So, that’s the kind of women you like, sticks and bones, model types?” she said to me.

I wasn’t expecting that. She was coming on strong again with her bitter candor.

“Well, I’m around them all the time. What would you expect?” I asked her.

“White girls, too, huh?”

I hesitated. “No, not usually. I don’t have a lot of experience with white women.”

She said, “Looks like you’re going to try one out tonight?”

I told her, “Look, there’s mostly white folks in here. So I’m introducing a few people to a few people. They did invite us here. This isn’t our affair.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to go the other way.”

Over her left shoulder, I could see Victoria and Jill still waiting for me. That didn’t look good. They were not working the crowd on their own at all. I thought the girl told me she was a wonder with people. How come she wasn’t doing her thing without me?

I told Rachel, “I’m not going the other way. What do you care about it, anyway? I’m not your type, remember?”

She said, “Play it how you want to play it. I can’t tell you what to do. But I will tell you this, you’d be surprised at how a natural woman could work it. So you keep that on your mind tonight,” and she walked away from me with plenty of sass.